Long post ahoy. Lots of background about XI up to CoP ahead, if you’re interested in that sort of thing- I think it’s kind of an interesting story, but that’s me nerding out like usual.

I’m in a bit of an interesting position here, because Dincrest’s Journal for Chrono Cross means I have something of a lead-up into XI’s development, which started soon after Chrono Cross finished.

FFXI’s development team consisted of star members of Square. Around 1997, Hironobu Sakaguchi, famed creator of the FF series, was in Hawaii establishing Square Pictures (we all know all that turned out) when he came across a strange little game called Everquest. Impressed by what he saw, he returned to Japan, and immediately called up several key members of Square, including Koichi Ishii (creator of the Mana series) and Hiromichi Tanaka (involved in way too many games to list).

Ishii wasn’t too interested in the idea of an online FF game, because he was happy working on his Mana games and didn’t really want to go back to FF. Sakaguchi insisted, encouraging several team members to play EQ and experience the massively successful Western MMORPG- Ishii reflected many years later had Sakaguchi not been so enthusiastic about the idea, the game probably would’ve never been made. After Ishii and other team members played EQ, they too were impressed, Ishii thinking it was now possible to do many ideas he had once only imagined. Kenichi Ishii was chosen as the director for the game, while Hiromichi Tanaka took the role of Producer.

Development started towards the end of 1999. The game would be a risky venture of sorts, being planned to become profitable over a 5-year lifespan. The game would do things other MMOs had not, such as cross-play between consoles and PC and having servers shared between players of different languages (although the development costs being significantly cut by the latter decision can make one wonder about the motivation). With Chrono Cross’s development over, the team responsible for that game was assigned to work on the upcoming online FF game. This meant Mr. Masato Kato of Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross fame was to be the main writer for FFXI.

Of course, writing for such a large-scale story meant Kato needed a team of writers, some of whom had worked with him on Chrono Cross. Ishii had already finished many of the basics of the world design, and had the director of Parasite Eve II, Kenichi Iwao, design the cities of the game- his work slowly spilled over into other aspects of the game, and Iwao would go on to become the man responsible for overseeing the game’s setting.

Masato Kato, however, was the one who made final decisions regarding much of the game’s writing (and would end up writing Rise of the Zilart’s story himself), and had about five different writers working under him. Three were chosen to work on the Three Nation storylines: San d’Oria by Yuusuke Kigoshi (Chrono Cross, Xenogears), Bastok by Nobuaki Koumoto (FFIX, Xenogears, Chocobo’s Dungeon 2), and Windurst by Yaeko Sato (Threads of Fate, Final Fantasy VIII, Vagrant Story). Another known writer was Yoshitsugu Saito (FFX, Chrono Cross, Xenogears), who wrote various sidequests and created cutscenes.

All of the writers under Kato were basically unknowns at the time. The Windurst story was probably the most popular of the Three Nation stories though, and Yaeko Sato would come to be loved by some of the playerbase for her continued work- and that brings us to the second expansion of FFXI.

Just as Rise of the Zilart was released, Square and Enix had their merger, and three major departures from the company occurred- Koichi Ishii, Hironobu Sakaguchi, and Masato Kato, all key in the creation of FFXI. The director position was open for XI’s second expansion, and the aforementioned Nobuaki Koumoto took up the mantle. More notably, Yaeko Sato was chosen to write the story for Chains of Promathia, while Yoshitsugu Saito created cutscenes like he had before. Kenichi Iwao was now overseeing the game’s setting. (Yuusuke Kigoshi hasn’t been heard from in any interviews) And so the stage was set for a team of relative unknowns to continue the work of the all-star team which created FFXI.

This might sound crazy since this journal is already longer than pretty much every other one on this board, but oh well- this is where FFXI’s story really begins. If you ever talk to someone who played FFXI and ask them what the best part of the game was, the answer given will probably be either Chains of Promathia or Treasures of Aht Urhgan, generally with more these days answering with the former. The two are favored for different reasons, and in the case of Chains of Promathia, it’s because of the story.

It’s actually a bit funny that’s the case, because when CoP first came out, it really wasn’t received that way. For a while the response to CoP was rather lukewarm- some players were disappointed by how little the expansion seemed to add in terms of game content, but that was because many of them missed out on the real meat of what the expansion was about. Review sites similarly gave it overall positive ratings, but very few of them mentioned the story. Even the ones that did- such as RPGFan’s review, did not seem to have much good to say about it.

Part of it is because of how MMOs were designed at this time- unlike how, say, XIV’s had what could be considered a complete plot released at launch, the main story of older MMOs were released over time. The complete story for an expansion in an MMO would generally not be completed until 1-2 years after launch, and with the pressure of making your reviews be timely, it probably isn’t a surprise that many review sites don’t give particularly insightful reviews about FFXI or other MMOs like it. It’s also why some of RPGFan’s later reviews for FFXI (by local fellow XI nut Patrick Gann/Ramza) would not be released until long after launch day. I should note though, that in the case of CoP this probably isn’t as big an issue, because I have not found a single review of CoP from the time that actually managed to progress to the end point of the missions it had at launch (Chapter 6, Mission 3), and that is probably because of the second reason.

The second reason is a rather controversial one amongst players, but a certainly another reason CoP is memorable to many- it was ball-bustingly difficult to complete. From the first chapter of the story, many players were getting their asses handed to them by the dangerous dungeons and powerful bosses that stood in the way of completing the story of CoP. If you’ve ever played something like Final Fantasy III on the NDS and had that awful feeling of dying at a boss after going through a long dungeon with no save point at the end, multiply that by about 5 times for when that happens in FFXI, because to complete dungeons in FFXI you also needed to spend time organizing a party of different players with the right jobs instead of just waltzing in whenever you felt like it.

The difficulty was magnified by two words that encompass a lot of CoP’s difficulty- level cap. Almost every important mission in CoP would temporary limit your character’s level when you entered, which sounds like a good compromise to allow newer players to access the story while not letting high level players just steamroll everything and declare it too easy. It might not be such a big deal if it weren’t for the fact that it’d mean you’d have to carry around a set of level 40 armor just so you can tackle a level 40 mission, a different set for a level 50 mission, etc. In game where you are given 30 inventory spaces to start off, it wasn’t really feasible to constantly carry around said level cap gear for a long period of time while you were off doing the other MMO stuff, so getting ready to do CoP Missions was something you needed to plan out carefully. In many cases, this meant forming a “static group” that would schedule times to progress in the story together.

Of course, both these things don’t exist anymore in the modern FFXI- the level caps have long since been removed from CoP’s missions and the complete story has been out for even longer. While purists like to argue that the lack of struggle in the actual game part of the game takes a great deal from the overall experience, I’d make the point that in some ways it also helps the way any new players now experience the story, because the relationships and plot details in CoP are rather complex, and back when it took so long for someone to get through the missions, some would end up forgetting a great deal of these plot details even as they progressed. Adding to this is the way Chains of Promathia’s story is presented- the story of past events is given to players in a non-linear fashion, with much of it being given in a he-said-she-said fashion and with some character straight up giving you false information. (Sounds a bit like another Square game…)

Of course, either way you don’t have to worry about it while reading this. It’s actually a bit of a shame so many people missed out on CoP’s story due to the MMO stuff getting in the way, because in my opinion, CoP’s story is right up there alongside some of the best Final Fantasy has to offer, MMO or not.

I want to mention right now that I hadn’t written anything remotely creative for a long time before starting this journal, so at times I’ve been concerned whether or not my writing style is anemic. I mention it because I’m sure some of you might be wondering how the last paragraph could be the case, given all the posts before this one. Whatever my writing deficiencies are, it probably isn’t helped by the fact that before CoP, much of FFXI’s story had a rather “dry” feeling to it and has a lot of well-worn RPG clichés- elves, knights, magic gods, lost ancient race etc. While how interesting the latter varies with how much of a fantasy nerd you are, the former can be somewhat explained by the man who was the overall handler of the Three Nation and the Rise of the Zilart story.

I’ve always seen Masato Kato as someone who enjoys writing expansive stories with generally pretty heavy themes to them. Chrono Cross is a perfect example, which for whatever faults you might have with it, is certainly ambitious with its story that questions the very meaning of life. I’ve also always felt that he’s never been a particularly good writer of characters (I’m sure that statement steps on some toes since Trigger is so beloved). Given his strengths, he might seem like the perfect person to write an MMO story. His strengths and weaknesses are certainly on display in RoZ.

CoP is something of a conclusion to the story that had been building up for about two years before. Essentially, a lot of the story in the posts I’ve made before this one set the stage for this expansion. CoP was released in September of 2004, less than a year after the stateside release of FFXI, but it had already been about a year and a half since the release of Rise of the Zilart in Japan.

It’s known that before Masato Kato left, he had brainstormed many different ideas with the team on how to continue the story. With Sato getting the chance to determine how the story played out, she decided to throw away many of those ideas and pieced together her own- though personally I see some remnants of the some of the discarded ideas players have been told about. At any rate, I feel with CoP Sato managed to out-Kato Kato in some ways.

One of the major themes of CoP is rather obvious, since it’s right there in the title- “Chains”. I’ll try not to explain too much since it would make more sense to leave it to you to figure out how the theme is relevant yourself as I go through the story. I’ll just note that it’s a great localization for the title and probably a more “accurate” title than the Japanese one, which uses the word “Curse” instead of “Chain”.

Another theme is one that is unfortunately lost in translation. The story still has this theme, but it was made clearer in the Japanese version of the game via the names of the missions you clear to finish the story. By taking the first kana of each mission name, a poem very familiar to many Japanese appears.

This is known as Iroha’s Poem, an interesting piece for numerous reasons, but since this isn’t a Japanese culture class, I’ll try to give a tl;dr version of what the poem represents. Basically, the poem is describing the Buddhist idea of Impermanence, or in more plain terms, “Nothing lasts forever”. Certainly sounds like a Kato-esque theme. (it also has a bit of a funny meta-aspect to it when you consider the kind of game FFXI is, but I’m pretty sure that’s intentional).

Aside from these themes being present throughout CoP, it also patched up one of the greatest weaknesses of FFXI’s story by introducing a cast of colorful characters. Aside from Shantotto (who was of course, also created by Yaeko Sato, being the Windurst writer and all), CoP’s characters are easily the most popular of the FFXI cast.

Also the quality of Mizuta’s music continues its upward trend in CoP. That helps.

With this long, long introduction done, I hope you enjoy going through CoP with me as much as I enjoyed playing it again and writing this up.

By the way, CoP entries probably are probably not going to be terribly regular in when I post them, and that’s because…well, you’ll see.

Larger things were happening near Jeuno. Wolfgang, Captain of the Jeunoan Ducal Guard, had forbidden any adventurers from entering the Delkfutt’s Tower. Perhaps it was because of the recent events, but the amount of manpower moving towards the tower indicated something else was going on.

The Crystal Line has been disrupted- for some reason, the energy flow from the northern line has reversed. One might suspect that someone is creating trouble at whichever crag that line corresponds to, before realizing how that should be impossible- there is nothing but the waters of the Sea of Shu’Meyo to the north of Qufim Island.

Unbeknownst to the people of Vana’Diel, something has awoken in the in that sea.

Bahamut later reflected that his entrance would’ve been way cooler had someone actually been there to see it.

Meanwhile, Delkfutt's Tower was still in lockdown, the entrances blocked by Ducal Guards. Wolfgang’s own crew is slightly baffled by the amount of manpower called upon for what seems to be a simple assignment, but Wolfgang quickly reminds his soldiers of their duty.

At least you’re not Naji.

All the Jeunoan scientists are presumed dead. They’re unable to find much in their search aside from a young boy, who they quickly send to the Jeunoan infirmary.

Wolfgang makes frequent checks on the boy at the Jeunoan infirmary, but it’s doubtful it’s out of any concern for his well-being. The doctor Monberaux is somewhat puzzled by his condition as well, though he’s not willing to violate the patient’s confidentiality even for the Captain of the Guard. The two bicker a little bit and it’s evident they have some kind of history together. Finally, Wolfgang decides that if the boy is in no immediate danger, he will be moved to the Palace where he can be interrogated.

Not even married and he’s already twisting all your words, Monberaux. Better quit ahead of time.

When Wolfgang returns to the Palace to begin preparations for the boy’s transport, Rapifafa arrives in Jeuno, and curious of all the commotion, decides to take a peek into the infirmary.

She engages in some small talk with Monberaux until the Ducal Guards come knocking on the door, and he excuses himself from the room to deal with them. Rapifafa doubts there is much else to see here, so she turns to leave herself.

When Rapifafa regains consciousness, she finds the boy is gone and the amulet is in her hands.

Outside, the Jeunoan scientist Nag’molada demands Monberaux to hand over the boy, and soon they are ready to force their way into the infirmary.

Inconceivable, there aren’t any spells in Vana’Diel that allow you to turn invisible!

With the Ducal Guard and the Jeunoan Scientists out of his hair, Monberaux notices that Rapifafa has the boy’s amulet. Concerned for his patient, he appeals to Rapifafa's curiosity, suggesting that to find out what’s actually going on, she should start by gathering information in the Ru’Lude Gardens. Rapifafa felt something was drawing her towards this investigation, and agrees to help Monberaux.

Rapifafa eavesdrops on a conversation between two Ducal Guards, finding out that recently, some of the telepoint crystals have shattered.

One of the younger Ducal Guards also willingly shares with Rapifafa that adventurers have recently been seen disappearing into strange whirlpools in the Valkurm Dunes and Qufim Island. The ducal scientists believe that these two events may be linked, so a group of Ducal Guards will be sent to investigate any day now.

Rapifafa figures she better investigate the telepoints now, as it’s likely she won’t be able to once the Ducal Guards begin to move. She decides to visit the first telepoint she ever saw, in the Tahrongi Canyon near Windurst.

Indeed, Rapifafa arrives to find that one of the telepoint crystals has shattered into pieces.

The shattered telepoint transports Rapifafa to an odd hallway, where a strange device scans her.

The door opens, as if beckoning for her.

Rapifafa wonders if she should’ve just let the Zilart brothers destroy the world.

Rapifafa approaches the door, but instead of walking through, she is drawn in.

Rapifafa awakens to find herself in a strange, nightmarish realm. Looking out into the darkness of the strange place she found herself in, Rapifafa is filled with a feeling of what she can only describe as an emptiness.

As Rapifafa ventures deeper into the area, she is confronted by creatures unlike any she has ever seen, and none of them are friendly.

She eventually reaches a dead end, containing nothing but a strange contract with a shining orb within.

Destroying the orb causes a portal to appear on the ground, and Rapifafa finds herself transported to another part of the strange realm.

Rapifafa wanders through the area, finding more orbs like the one she saw, but not all of them yield teleporters when defeated. It is a long time before she finally reaches what appears to be the central “spire” of the area.

Inside the spire, the way forward is blocked by a strange web-like door.

As soon as she approaches it, however, it disappears.

Rapifafa finds herself face-to-face with another one of the strange creatures she saw before, but this one was much larger.

Upon defeating the creature, another portal appears before Rapifafa, which takes her to the heart of the crag- a heart of Vana'diel itself.

Rapifafa has a feeling she needs to travel to another crag to find answers to her questions, so she heads for the Konschtat Highlands near Bastok. There, she finds another shattered crystal just like the one she found in Tahrongi Canyon.

Before she is able to enter, she is stopped by the Mythril Musketeers. Cid has come along as well, and apparently he too is investigating some of the strange goings-on that have occured recently. The Ducal Guard also make an appearance, asking everyone to back off and allow them to look into the matter.

Unfortunately, Cid has still been unable to perfect his tinfoil hat design.

Before they can finish their argument, Rapifafa is drawn into the shattered telepoint.

Once again Rapifafa finds herself in the realm of emptiness, and she has little choice other than to move forward and continue her investigation.

As she traverses the realm within the Dem teleport crystal, she finds differences between this one and the one she saw at the Mea teleport crystal. Some of the creatures were different, and the realm itself seemed to take on features of the land that surrounded it, in this case manifesting as windmills seen throughout the Konschtat Highlands.

The spire at the center is much the same, however.

Much like at the last spire, Rapifafa is thrust into a battle with one of the creatures here.

With the creature defeated, Rapifafa is transported to the Dem Mothercrystal.

As Rapifafa rushes to help the boy off the ground, she is assaulted by another vision.

Once again Rapifafa awoke to find herself outside, with another strange feeling in her heart which encouraged her to continue her investigation.

Rapifafa next travelled to the La Thiene Plateau near San d’Oria, where the teleport crag of Holla awaited.

Nag’molada was already here waiting, having made the sensible induction that Rapifafa would travel to the third crag after having visited the first two.

With a wave of Nag’molada’s hand, Rapifafa is brought to her knees, and she is helpless as he gives his next order.

For all of Rapifafa's experience as an adventurer, she is still unable to fend off Nag'molada patented bitch slapping technique.

Wolfgang hesitates, believing more evidence is needed instead of haphazardly executing people. However, Nag’molada reminds Wolfgang of the importance of the Mothercrystal- they are the source of all life on the world, and to protect the world, only the Jeunoan scientists are allowed to know this secret. Where Rapifafa went, the boy was sure to follow, and that was proof enough that they were working together.

As Nag’molada speaks to the boy, he reveals a seemingly extensive knowledge of Vana’Diel’s forgotten past.

Once again, Rapifafa is drawn into the realm of Emptiness.

Like before, this realm was similar, yet different than the ones that had come before.

Fear grips Rapifafa as she travels through the Emptiness, passing by nameless tombstones and lifeless trees.

At least t’s still fancier than that one restaurant that bard took me to.

And much like the last crag, Rapifafa’s journey through the darkness ends at a spire.

With the creature guarding the spire defeated, Rapifafa enters the presence of the Holla Mothercrystal. The strange boy is already there, spreading the strange darkness like he had before. Nag’molada follows closely behind.

Before she is able to take action, Emptiness engulfs the area, and Rapifafa has another vision.

Rapifafa feels herself being swept into some strange current. As she loses consciousness, she feels the light of the crystal entering her and giving her strength.

Comments

One of the things you might have already noticed is that the storytelling style has changed in Chains of Promathia. Before this, just about every cutscene in the game was from the perspective of your character. Starting with CoP, the FFXI team started doing a more “traditional” approach to storytelling, and many things that are happening are made known to you the player, but are unknown to your character. This arguably makes the game less immersive (Something former Director Koichi Ishii held as incredibly important), but does free up their ability to tell the story more effectively.

This first set of Missions for CoP introduced the players to the level of challenege that was to come. Capped at level 30, the Promyvion areas were incredibly dangerous to traverse, and since maps of the area were not easy to obtain (and even if you have them, they're actually not that useful), players had to slowly find their way around the areas. While the boss battles in CoP were mostly limited to 6-man parties, many early groups decided to form large alliances to make their way through the Promyvion areas before splitting the group to confront the bosses.

Promyvion also introduces to the numerous unique-looking area designs that came with CoP. Personally, I don't really agree with RPGFan's review on the Promyvion areas- I can see why someone might think they're bland, but to me the Promyvion areas are some of the most atmospheric in the whole game. Mizuta's music for the areas really helps with that.

Nag’molada awakens to find himself in an unfamiliar land. Looking around he guesses that he is somewhere in the Western part of the continent, but before he can begin his search for more information, he spots something strange in the sky.

Elsewhere, a group of Tarutaru youths spot the strange phenomenon as well.

Though their chase is cut short rather quickly.

They decide together that they need to go get some help, but not before rummaging through Rapifafa’s pockets.

Rapifafa awakens several minutes later, finding that the amulet she was given had been stolen. With all other directions blocked by cliffs, Rapifafa has no choice but to travel west through the area, in pursuit of the children. She induced from the Orc and Gigas in the area that she was probably somewhere near San d’Oria, but not too far north since the area was not snowed in.

Rapifafa had a strange feeling about the area- she could not recall in her travels hearing about other adventurers reaching a place like this one, yet she could not help but feel as though there was something familiar about it.

Rapifafa soon reaches the western end of the meadows, where she finds a pathway leading underground.

How rude.

Rapifafa is not pleased to see Nag’molada, but he points out the reality of the situation- they were both in an unfamiliar land and it was best they set aside their differences if they wanted to find out what was going on.

Also, we’re surrounded. That too.

One of the guards approaches them, wishing to know why they have come- behind him trailed the three Tarutaru who stole the amulet from Rapifafa. Rapifafa informs the guard of the children’s crime and the guard quickly turns to give one of the children a good slap upside the head- local troublemakers, apparently. Still, the children have a different story to tell.

Justinius decides it would be best to wait for this Prishe to return before returning the amulet to Rapifafa, and offers her the chance to rest inside. However, he reminds Rapifafa that outsiders are not welcome here, and as soon as the issue is resolved, she will be asked to leave.

For a long time, Tavnazia was known as the “Pearl of Zafmlug”- a center of trade where dreams of wealth of success could become true- that all ended 20 years ago when the beastmen hordes descended on Tavnazia. As the last survivors of the city entered the cathedral, they awaited their deaths at the hands of the Orcs.

However, instead of the Orcs, the cardinal, Mirdaurion C. Giloumet appeared before the survivors, tending to the wounded and informing the survivors of a way to escape via the lower parts of the cathedral. The boats in the subterranean harbor beneath Tavnazia, however, had already departed, leaving them for dead. A strange explosion severed any way of reaching Quon by land, and the survivors of Tavnazia were trapped.

Much like their San d’Orian cousins, the Tavnazians were largely Elvaan. Without the power of their faith, it is unlikely they would have survived these past 20 years.

Despachiaire welcomes Rapifafa to Tavnazia, believing that perhaps the appearance of outsiders in their land after such a long time may be a sign of better times to come. Rapifafa decides to spend some time speaking with the people of the town to understand their situation.

The city is rather depressing. It is filled with broken soldiers and their caretakers, parents who have lost their children to Orc remnant forces, and youths who have seen nothing their whole lives but the fading remnants of a once-great nation.

Yet as Despachiaire described, the power of the Tavnazian faith was undeniable. Despite all their hardships, the people here continue to eke out an existence. As probably would be expected, the youth in Tavnazia give off an air of frustration over how restrictive life here is. Some, like those three Tarutaru children, gather their courage to venture out on their own against the advice of the elders. Rapifafa also hears rumors of Despachiaire’s granddaughter, who is apparently blessed with an amazing singing voice, and another mysterious youth referred to only as “The Abhorrent One”.

It’s a lot of information to take in, and as Rapifafa travels to the bottom floor of the Tavnazian Safehold, she spots what she can only assume is the entrance to the aquaducts through which the Tavnazian survivors made their escape two decades ago.

Before they can go any further, the three Tarutaru children arrive to annoy Rapifafa again.

Thankfully Justinius arrives to tell the children to stop bothering their guests, but he also tells Rapifafa and Nag’moloada to stay away from the Phomiuna Aqueducts- it was once a peaceful place, but it was now infested with monsters. There are even rumors of a Minotaur in the aquaducts, but they can’t make any decisions on what to do until their leader, Prishe, returns.

Nag’molada offers Rapifafa as a solution to their problems, and while Rapifafa’s not too keen on doing what Nag’molada says, she does agree these people are in need of help. Before approving of the mission, Justinius offers only one warning- there will be no rescue parties if she does not return.

The Phomiuna Aqueducts is a maze of ladders and locked doors. If Rapifafa had her Thief Tools with her, she could simply pick the locks on the doors, but no such luck this time, so she had to find any keys found off the wandering spirits of the Tavnazians who did not make the escape.

After hours of wandering through the aquaducts, Rapifafa is spotted by one of the monsters in the area, which proceeds to draw her in using some strange magical force- it was the rumored Minotaur that Justinius had described.

The Minotaur is a fearsome foe- Rapifafa was faced with the difficult task of fighting the creature while not looking directly at its eyes. She had heard that if one were to gaze into a Taurus’s eyes, death would only be a few seconds away.

With the Minotaur defeated, the Tavnazians would be safe from attack- for now. Since she was down here, Rapifafa figures it's probably best to investigate the area further before returning to the Safehold. As she ventures deeper in, she runs into Nag’molada.

Nag’molada ignores the inquiry asking if he had just been scratching himself for the last few hours.

Nag’molada had been busy- he even gave Rapifafa a hand with the Minotaur by weakening it with a spell before she had reached it (or so he says). Together, Rapifafa and Nag’molada venture into one of the few intact rooms of the cathedral above the aquaducts, where they find a strange box.

Nothing ominous about that.

Nag’molada seems to recognize the strange box- some kind of artifact that belonged to the church. Nag’molada thinks out loud for a moment before noticing Rapifafa again, and declares that it was about time they went back to the Safehold.

Rapifafa and Nag’molada report the good news of the Minotaur’s death to Justinius.

Justinius is delighted at the news, and also notes how they chose the perfect time to come back- he had just received word that their leader has returned.

The de facto leader of the Tavnazian survivors is not at all what Rapifafa imagined her to be.

She’s back from investigating some strange happenings at Cape Riverne to the west- lots strange critters are gathering around the area, it seems. The citizens are concerned if it has anything to do with that strange trail left by whatever passed by recently, and ask if Prishe has any idea what it is.

I don’t think that’s something you’re supposed to just state casually.

Prishe plans on taking another trip out to Cape Riverne soon, but before the discussion can get very far, Justinius gets Prishe’s attention so formal introductions can be made.

The Chebukki siblings interrupt the conversation, needing to get their word in and not caring for the immediately obvious.

Nevertheless, Prishe is curious why Rapifafa would have an amulet so similar to hers. There wasn’t much room for conversation in the hustle and bustle of the street though, so Prishe invites Rapifafa to come to her room later.

After the commotion dies down, Rapifafa goes to visit Prishe as promised. For an Elvaan girl who couldn’t be past her teens, Prishe has quite a mouth on her.

It seems that Prishe asked Rapifafa to come mostly because she was curious where Rapifafa had found the amulet.

Before Rapifafa can answer, Despachiaire enters the room, looking concerned.

Despachiaire had heard that Prishe spotted a dragon of some kind in Cape Riverne, and he has his suspicions that it may the dragon found on a “painting of Al’Taieu”. It didn’t have much meaning to Rapifafa, but Prishe seemed alarmed by the theory- apparently the Cardinal Mildaurion once told them a story behind said painting, and the dragon depicted within was one known as Bahamut.

With no time to waste, Prishe “asks” Rapifafa to help her find someone named Ulmia.

After asking around town, Rapifafa hears a rumor that Ulmia enjoys traveling out west to the Miseareaux Coast. As she searches the area, she comes across a girl singing a beautiful song. It contained lyrics which Rapifafa had heard numerous times before in her life, though not in the form of a song like this.

Rapifafa is curious about the song- she had heard the words many times before, but she had never heard where it was actually from. Ulmia explains that the song is known as the “Lay of the Immortals”, a song passed down by the Tavnazian Cathedral for many generations. No matter what hardships their people have faced, this song had helped guide them through it.

Nag’molada seems strangely familiar with the song, and even calls it by a different name.

Nag’molada claims that this is more than just a mere song. It was a recording of the memories of the crystal that created Vana'diel, and was thus an immutable truth.

Glass houses, Nag’molada.

Rapifafa remembers that Prishe had asked her to find Ulmia, so together they decide to return to the Safehold.

She’s actually referring to the danger of traveling with her and not the monsters.

Back at the Safehold, Prishe begins organizing the group bound for Cape Riverne- apparently there have been more strange trails in the sky passing through much like the one Nag’molada saw when he first arrived. While at first Rapifafa didn’t quite understand why there was such a large commotion, listening to Ulmia voice her concerns made her understand- the Tavnazian citizens seem to think it’s the end times. Whispers of the Gates of Paradise opening were circulating. Whatever this Bahamut was, apparently it was closely tied to the Tavnazian faith.

Prishe has little luck finding volunteers for the trip, but she soon realizes that out of all the people that should be volunteering, the three that she has every reason to expect to show up have not yet.

As soon as the group is drawn into the shattered cape, Prishe finds exactly who she has been looking for.

Prishe is threatening them for their own good, apparently- the last time the Chebukkis went out alone, it took over a month for their wounds to heal- and that was them just venturing right outside the safehold. The Chebukkis aren't having any of that, though, and make sure to get the last word in before they run off.

Look on the bright side Prishe- they didn't call you old.

Cape Riverne is a difficult place to travel through- it was now made up of several disconnected floating islands, and to travel around the group needed to jump through portals like the one they used to enter.

Eventually Rapifafa arrived at a portal to one of the largest islands in the area- she could feel a powerful force emanating from within.

Somehow, Rapifafa was separated from Ulmia and Prishe as they entered they entered the portal, and they were now on different levels of the same area.

Been busy the last couple weeks, but here’s Chapter 2, introducing the two most central characters of Promathia’s story, Prishe and Ulmia. You might have already met the former in some Final Fantasy spinoffs like Dissidia, since she’s second only to Shantotto in terms of popularity, so she’s sometimes used as a “representative” of FFXI.

Prishe is considered the “main character” of Chains of Promathia (barring the player character obviously), and she might seem somewhat reminiscent of characters like Kid from Chrono Cross or Mint from Threads of Fate- both games Yaeko Sato worked on. She’s expressed a preference for brash/foul-mouthed heroines like that, so perhaps it’s no surprise one takes center stage here. Apparently, Prishe’s language was in some ways harsher in Japanese, though it was a bit hard to translate completely. Interesting to note that she uses the person pronoun “ore” (俺) in the Japanese version, which is an uncommon choice for a female character.

I have some other thoughts on the characters, but I guess I won’t say too much at this point to avoid spoilers.

As for the actual game part of the game, CoP continues to give lots of unique areas to look at. The Tavnazian Archipelago is a really beautiful area, with the best sights seen when the sun shines through the clouds and the view of the horizon during sunsets.

The first dungeon players run into here, the Aqueducts, were originally capped at level 40, and like the Promyvion areas, were very dangerous to travel around in. The Taurus type enemies in the area see past the Invisible spell and use gaze attacks which inflict Doom, which was pretty much a death sentence since people had not figured out how the heck it actually worked yet. The locked doors and maze-like layout of the area just add to the horror.

The second dungeon, Cape Riverne, is a series of floating islands with some pretty clouds to look at all around. Like with almost every other CoP dungeon, it is given a level cap and enemies which break past sneak/invisible spells. In this case, Riverne is also capped at level 40, and getting through the area required players to defeat Wyverns to get past certain rifts around the area.

The boss battle of Chapter 2, against the Mammets, was known to be quite difficult when it first came out. Like with everything else it wasn't too hard once people knew how to get past it, but many popular strategies were very restrictive in party setup, making some people go off and power level jobs they hadn’t played before just so they could get past it. And this was the easy part still- battles even harder than this one awaited down the line.

Prishe isn't patient enough to stand around waiting for Rapifafa to wake up, and runs off after a passing airship soon after waking. Rapifafa couldn’t get to her feet until several moments later, but she immediately recognizes the area as the desert-like Gustaberg.

Rapifafa ventures a guess that Prishe will chase the airship to the docks in Port Bastok. Rapifafa has little trouble finding Prishe there, thanks in part to the ruckus she was stirring up.

Certainly makes the world seem more realistic if the mentally ill are ignored.

Prishe runs off before Rapifafa can get her attention. Rapifafa loses sight of Prishe, but arrives in the Metalworks to find Cid in his workshop as usual.

Cid informs her that he had to have Prishe arrested after she bursted in, babbling incoherently. She wasn’t being mistreated or anything- Cornelia was keeping her company. Cid asks Rapifafa what the heck Prishe was ranting about, and he seems shocked when Rapifafa tells Cid about the strange scientists she saw at Cape Riverne.

Cid recalls that 20 years ago, he had been asked to assist in a secret project in Jeuno, and he noticed then that the Jeunoan scientists had access to technology far beyond that of the other nations. Being the curious type, Cid started watching the scientists every chance he had, and on several occasions he found them conducting strange experiments near the Crag of Holla.

Prishe explains what happened at Cape Riverne, and Cid notes that at the same time the Crag of Dem near Bastok shattered, a giant dragon was spotted in the sea north of Jeuno, so it was likely that these two events were related. This only solidifies Prishe’s desire to meet the Wyrmking once again so she could figure out exactly who this “Keeper of the Apocalypse” Bahamut was referring to was.

Once again Prishe is way too fast on her feet for Rapifafa to stop, so Rapifafa figures she’ll spend some time in Bastok before taking the airship to Jeuno-she’ll probably get there not long after Prishe finishes her long run there.

Before Rapifafa leaves the Metalworks, she runs into Ayame.

Rapifafa is informed that recently, a new Goblin lair has sprung up very close to Bastok. According to scholars, these Goblins were a different tribe known as the Moblins. Friendly or not, a beastmen lair being this close to Bastok is concerning, so Ayame asks Rapifafa to help in finding more information regarding these Moblins.

Ayame directs Rapifafa to the expert on the situation, a researcher from the Windurstian Rhinostery. Ravorara asks that Rapifafa refrain from engaging in hostile action against the Moblins just yet, and attempt to gather information from them through negotiation.

Rapifafa travels to North Gustaberg, and as described, she finds a newly-formed passage to a strange “city” down below.

The city of Movalpolos is structured unlike any city Rapifafa had been to, man or beastman. She wasn’t able to follow Ravorara’s instructions terribly well given that most of the Goblins in the city attacked her on-sight, but Rapifafa is eventually able to find one willing to converse with her.

Brakobrik is willing to part with some of his belongings after Rapifafa assists him with some menial tasks. Most of what he gives Rapifafa seems to be junk, but Rapifafa figures Ravorara would be the judge of that.

The items brought back include a strange jug which contained some kind of foul liquid, a cracked club which is constructed from some unknown material, a peeling hairpin which could only be made by a talented goldsmith, and a strange dusty tome. Of them, the last one is perhaps the most interesting- Ravorara identifies it as a book of worship. This suggested that the Moblins worshiped the Dawn Goddess, just as many of the enlightened races do. A common religion could be key in avoiding a conflict altogether.

Rapifafa continues her investigation, and after performing yet another task for Brakobrik, she is handed a strange nametag. It does not seem to be of Moblin origin, so she brings it back to Ravorara.

Ravorara recognizes it as an identification tag worn by workers in the Bastok Mines. She hypothesizes that perhaps the Moblins had come across it during their tunneling, and after some careful examination, she makes out the name “Pavvke”. Rapifafa recognizes the name- she had met the man a few times before when interacting with the Galkan community.

Pavvke explains that he had lost that tag almost a century ago- very few Hume officials knew of an incident that occured back then. Some of the Galkan workers in the Gusgen Mines had accidentally dug into the tunnels of the Moblins as they expanded on their own mining operations. At first, the Moblins didn’t attack the Galka- they would occasionally steal books and kidnap their people, but they would always return the people unharmed after a short time.

Eventually, one of the Galka decided he would learn the Moblin language and attempt to communicate with them- perhaps the two sides could come to some arrangement. This completely backfired- the Moblins suddenly became hostile and began to attack the Galka. The battle only lasted a few days before the tunnels connecting the Gusgen Mines and Movalpolos were caved in, and communication with the Moblins was once again lost.

If Rapifafa and Ravorara want to know more about what happened then, they would have to find the Galka who had attempted to learn the Moblin language. However, Pavvke does not know where he was, or even if he was alive. The Galka known as Jabbos had disappeared as soon as the fighting began- Pavvke speculates that perhaps Jabbos was ashamed that he had caused so much trouble for everyone and ran away.

Rapifafa brings this information back to Ayame, who searches through Bastok’s records, and is able to locate a small mention of the incident. At the time, the Moblins stole various objects from Selbina, then a Bastokan territory, and from Bastok itself. After the collapse in Gusgen Mines, the Moblins disappeared from the pages of history- in fact, they did not even appear 20 years ago to answer the Shadow Lord’s call to arms- quite an anomaly as far as beastmen are concerned. Even with this information before her however, Ayame is still skeptical that beastmen would be willing to worship the Dawn Goddess as the enlightened races do.

Still, there were others that had an interest in seeing the investigation continue. Ayame tells Rapifafa that the San d’Orian faith is of course interested in seeing this matter through to the end, and directs her to a missionary from the San d’Orian church named Virnage.

Virnage had seen the book that Rapifafa brought back, and confirms that it was a volume produced by the San d’Orian cathedral. Because of its well-maintained condition, he had reason to believe that the Moblins were indeed followers of Altana. However, a priest would be defenseless walking into the Moblin city, so he asks that Rapifafa help him back taking a symbol of the Dawn Goddess with her and speaking with the Moblins.

Rapifafa takes the Dawn Talisman down to Movalpolos, where she shows it to one of the less hostile Moblins- unfortunately, he didn’t stay friendly for long.

Even after killing the Moblin’s Bugbear pet, he still would not settle down.

Rapifafa is a bit bewildered as to what she should do before the Moblin attracts too much attention, but the problem is soon solved for her.

Rapifafa returns to Virnage to inform him of what occurred in Movalpolos. Upon learning that Rapifafa was attacked, he is disappointed to conclude that perhaps the Moblins only treated the book well because of its value as a curiosity. With little to show for his efforts, he apparently decides to instead focus his proselytizing on the lost sheep before him.

Rapifafa likes her gil, so she tells Virnage about the strange Moblin she ran into and how he took the talisman away from her. Virnage considers that perhaps the book had actually belonged to this Galka the Moblin mentioned, and concludes that it would be best if the existence of this Galka were reported to the Bastokan officials.

Rapifafa reports back to Ayame with everything she had found.

With this new information, Ayame once again asks Rapifafa to continue her investigation, but it was likely that if she wanted to travel deeper into Movalpolos, she would have to seek the assistance of other Goblins. The closest thing to that was the Muckvix’s Junk Shop in Jeuno, but it was likely Rapifafa needed to start heading that way herself anyway- Prishe was likely nearing Jeuno.

Rapifafa takes the airship to Jeuno, the whole trip thinking about how much time Prishe could’ve saved if she had been patient for about 5 seconds. Upon arriving, Rapifafa figures that Aldo would be her best bet for finding Prishe given what she said, so she travels to the Tenshodo base in Lower Jeuno.

The Ducal Guards coming for Rapifafa must mean that the airship which made the attack on Bahamut has returned to Jeuno. Before they can drag Rapifafa off, Aldo comes to her rescue.

Aldo’s able to chase the guards off his home turf, but Wolfgang leaves a parting message- there’s already a warrant for Rapifafa’s arrest ready to be sent across Vana’Diel, so it seems she will have no choice but to turn herself in later.

For now, Rapifafa has arrived just in time- Prishe needs Rapifafa so Aldo will believe her tall tale of Tavnazia’s survival for the past 20 years- apparently, Aldo was also from Tavnazia.

Prishe is in luck- a gentleman had come just a few days ago also booking passage to Tavnazia. Aldo was ready to reject him as well, but the man was able to convince Aldo otherwise when he let his deep pockets join the negotiations.

The vote of confidence is appreciated.

Prishe runs off to get permission to tag along for the ride. Rapifafa spends a short time asking Aldo about his father- Aldo was one of many people who had their life destroyed by the beastman attack on Tavnazia 20 years ago.

After being orphaned, he was taken in by the leader of the Tenshodo, Grezzo. After his time passed, Aldo became the leader of the Tenshodo in his place.

Aldo seems unwilling to divulge much more than that, so Rapifafa bids him farewell. Rapifafa decides to first travel to Muckvix’s junk shop- hopefully, the goblins there will be willing to assist with the investigation into the city of Movalpolos.

Muckvix agrees to find a way to help Rapifafa to get into Movalpolos. He is curious what his Moblin cousins are doing, and even if he wasn’t, hostilities breaking out between Bastok and the Moblins wouldn’t be healthy for his business. He asks Rapifafa for some time to make preparations.

As Rapifafa leaves Muckvix’s shop, she runs into a man named Omer, seemingly upset about a young Elvaan girl.

Omer believed that the waters around the Qufim Island held an incredibly rare fish, but he didn’t believe it was worth sticking his neck where all kinds of monsters lived just so he could satisfy a hobby.

Prishe came by earlier and took Omer’s rod, and soon returned to Omer with the fish he had been looking for- minus his rod. Apparently Prishe lost the fishing rod to one of the monsters living underwater.

Rapifafa can’t really make any excuses for Prishe, giving him her condolences and filing the story in the back of her mind. For now, Rapifafa had to make her way to the Ducal Palace.

As Rapifafa passed through Upper Jeuno, Rapifafa runs into a little Elvaan girl named Nevela. Apparently, Omer wasn’t the only local Prishe had made an impression on her stay in Jeuno so far.

Prishe had happened by when the girl was thinking out loud about how chocobos had wings, yet would not fly. Being Prishe, she had no problem interjecting into the little girl’s conversation with herself.

Nevela went to ask around the stables afterwards, but the only thing she could find out was that the chocobo Prishe had pointed out to her was born in Bastok, apparently mothered by a unique chocobo with silver feathers. Being that she’s too young to travel there on her own, she asks if Rapifafa can help her learn the story of the chocobo. Rapifafa agrees, but warns the girl it might be some time before she can return to her with any information.

Rapifafa continues her trip to the Ru’Lude Gardens and arrives at the palace, where she is taken into custody.

Wolfgang informs her that the duke vicarious, Esha’ntarl, is currently busy with another meeting, and that Rapifafa will be allowed in afterwards.

Esha’ntarl was meeting with a messenger from a land Rapifafa had heard through rumor numerous times, yet knew very little about.

Tenzen is concerned his message will not be heard by the Duke himself, as he believes it is one of the utmost importance- one that will affect not only his homeland, but all the countries of Vana’Diel, including the southern and western lands, the eastern land from which he hails, and the land he now resides in. Esha’ntarl, however, assures him that his message will be passed onto the Archduke.

Esha’ntarl acknowledges Tenzen’s story, citing the recent occurrences in the Central Lands. Since the phenomenon is currently isolated, however, the Duchy has currently decided to withhold the information from the public.

Esha’ntarl is somewhat caught off-guard by Tenzen’s straightforward accusations, but she assures him that the experiments the Duchy runs are not responsible for the current spread of the Emptiness. The Duchy officials have taken upon themselves to contain this threat, and are unwilling to trust any other nation with the power of the Mothercrystals, including the Far East. However, Esha’ntarl senses that Tenzen cares deeply for the suffering of his people, so she allows him the chance to aid in the investigation.

Rapifafa is introduced to Tenzen and is told to assist in the investigation. Rapifafa’s actions at the three crags of Dem, Mea, and Holla have made the Duchy highly suspicious of her motives, and this was to be her chance to prove her- and her nation’s- lack of relation with the mysterious boy.

With that clarified, Esha’ntarl tells Rapifafa to travel to the fourth Mothercrystal to find and capture the boy. The fourth Mothercrystal, as Rapifafa knew, was located under the glaciers of the Northlands, and Esha’ntarl knew exactly how she might find more information.

Rapifafa knew for a fact that all the members of the Multinational Northlands Expedition were dead. Still, perhaps she would still be able to gain some information if she tried searching for anyone who might've known them. She decided she will begin her investigation in San d’Oria.

Before Rapifafa sets off for San d’Oria, she first travels to Qufim Island to see if Prishe was telling the truth- if she did, she might have a chance at finding Omer’s fishing rod.

Against all odds, Rapifafa manages to fish up the monster Prishe referred to, finding Omer’s fishing rod in its belly. With the rod returned, Rapifafa could prove Prishe’s innocence.

The lesson here is that stealing is okay as long as you remember to misplace it.

With half the day spent fishing in Qufim Island, Rapifafa returns to Muckvix, who informs Rapifafa of the plan they had drafted.

Since the Moblins have not been aware of anything that has happened above ground for so long, Muckvix has come up with a plan to trick them into thinking Rapifafa is simply a Goblin disguised as a human. Rapifafa thinks the plan odd, but she didn’t seem to have much choice if she wished to learn more. Muckvix needs time to prepare everything, but Rapifafa was going to be spending much time in the three nations in the coming days for her investigation regardless. Muckvix arranges a time for Rapifafa and his group to meet in Movalpolos.

Rapifafa had no time to waste, she headed for Port Jeuno and took the next airship to San d’Oria.

As Rapifafa was beginning her investigation into Francmage, Ulmia was visiting the San d’Orian cathedral. Rapifafa wasn’t going to find information on Francmage simply asking random citizens, so she needed an inside source of some kind. Luckily, she soon found that possible source.

Rapifafa agrees to assist an Elvaan woman named Sobane. Her husband is the head chef of the royal family, so he is privy to a wealth of information Rapifafa needs access to.

Sobane tells Rapifafa about one section of the Jugner’s Forest known as the Carpenter’s Landing , containing a mansion owned by the Count Varonbiriaux M Teulomme. Thirty years ago, those same lands belonged to the Knights Mistalle- headed by one Francmage M Mistalle.

After Francmage’s return from the Multinational Expedition to the Northlands, he perished under mysterious circumstances. His son, Leservieus M Mistalle, was swept in rage and grief over his father’s death. In his rage, he soon became embroiled in an argument with one Lord Epuliphont M Revemel of the Temple Knights, who made slanderous conjectures concerning Francmage’s fate. In response, Leservieus challenged the man in a duel to the death.

Duels were strictly forbidden by San d’Orian law, so when the royal family learned of this duel, both families involved were stripped of their titles. Leservieus’s wife, Lady Leffine, returned to her hometown Selbina with her infant child. With 30 years having gone by since that time, that child has grown into a respectable knight, and wishes to redeem the name Mistalle- this is where the Count Teulomme comes in, because as soon as he learned of the heir to the Mistalle name, he ordered his vassals to begin searching for Leservieus’s son.

While Count Teulomme claims he wishes to offer assistance to the young heir to Mistalle, Sobane and her husband believe that it is more likely Count Teulomme is only looking to preserve his hold over the Carpenter’s Landing. Sobane asks that Rapifafa help find Francmage’s heir before Count Teulomme can.

Rapifafa follows the only lead Sobane could give her- Selbina.

The mayor of Selbina is tight-lipped about Lady Leffine, but he quickly loosens his tongue with an appropriate bribe. Rapifafa learns that the Lady Leffine passed away many years ago, but her son, Louverance, grew to be a fine young man and joined the Royal Knights of San d’Oria. He notes that Louverance visit his mother’s grave in Selbina quite often, but that came to an abrupt halt a few weeks ago.

Rapifafa also learns from the mayor that another visitor had come looking for Leffine before her, and amongst her words contained a name familiar to Rapifafa - Atarefaunet’s Band.

Sobane is also stricken with terror at the name when Rapifafa brings this information back to her. Atarefaunet’s name was still one that brought fear, even after his execution in San d’Oria at the end of the Crystal War. If the Count Teulomme was hiring remaining members of Atarefaunet’s Band, Louverance is almost certainly in danger. She asks Rapifafa to help warn Louverance of the men who may be after his life.

Being a chef, Sobane’s husband has less of a personal investment in saving Louverance than Sobane herself does- Sobane’s mother had worked for the Revemel family, and she feels partially responsible for the dishonor brought upon both houses. Ondieumais wishes to confirm whether this Louverance was actually worth helping, so he thinks it would be prudent if Rapifafa first attempted to contact the criminal threatening the Count. It made little difference to Rapifafa at this point- with her nation at stake, she didn't have time to be concerned with only Louverance's life. She needed information about Francmage.

Rapifafa tracks a long series of leads, including gathering information via a strange domesticated Tonberry- clearly, whoever was threatening the Count was very careful not to leave many vulnerabilities.

Her search eventually leads her to Davoi, where she meets with one of the criminal’s associates.

The man explains that when Atarefaunet was brought in for execution 20 years ago, it put many nobles in an awkward position- many of them had performed less than savory activities under the table via Atarefaunet’s Band, and while Atarefaunet was facing serious charges and probable execution, they needed the man silenced quickly instead of “eventually”. One of these nobles was the same Count Teulomme who was now being threatened. He bought off one of the oubliette guards and arranged for poison to be mixed into Atarefaunet’s meals. Of course, Atarefaunet was no fool- this was exactly what he hoping would happen. Using that opportunity, he erased his existence from the world.

Rapifafa returns to Sobane, informing her and her husband only of the information that Louverance was innocent of any wrongdoing. The couple is happy to learn that the heir to Mistalle has grown to be an honorable man, and tell Rapifafa that they have spent the time arranging for Louverance to be warned of any threat against his life. Despite Rapifafa wishing to know more about how they were able to track Louverance, given the warning she received earlier, Rapifafa decides it may be best if she left Sobane’s family alone now.

Rapifafa travels to the Cathedral in San d’Oria, where she learns Ulmia has been poking around wanting to know more about the Gate of the Gods. The Vicasque Arnau recommends that if Rapifafa wishes to know more about the Multinational Expedition to the North and its search for the Gate, she should attend his sermon. He had made the same recommendation to Ulmia a few moments ago.

Rapifafa finds the sermon a complete bore, but Ulmia seemed moved by it. She is, however, confused by some of the discrepancies between the San d’Orian and Tavnazian faith. Most notably, the Tavnazian faith believes that when the ancients attempted to cross the Gate of the Gods, the Twilight God placed a terrible curse on the people of Vana’Diel. Thus, the Gate of the Gods is a line the children of Vana’Diel are forbidden to cross- yet this is precisely what the San d’Orian faith has been attempting to do for many years- open the Gate of the Gods.

Arnau completely avoids the question, saying he needs to prepare for his next sermon and if Ulmia and Rapifafa wanted more answers, they would need to speak with one of the higher priests.

The Croisque Chasalvige is very willing to answer their questions, taking them to the Reliquary built in honor of one the former Papasques, Muchavatte P Couchiret. Before his tenure, the cathedral had spent inordinate amounts of time and money scouring through ancient documents and going to war with other nations, including Tavnazia. Muchavatte spent his life soothing hearts wounded by the flames of war, and led the San d’Orian faith to the new realization that the Path of Paradise would come through practicing the teachings of the Dawn Goddess, rather than through a fruitless search for a gate in the physical world. In other words, finding the Gate of the Gods was now mainly a spiritual pursuit for the San d'Orian people.

Chasalvige ends by informing Rapifafa that if she wished to know more about Francmage, a portion of Carpenters’ Landing is owned by the Knights Mistalle. It was unlikely Rapifafa would be allowed near the manor itself, but she should be able to find some of the Knights’ hands collecting firewood by the water.

Rapifafa travels out to the Carpenters’ Landing in the Jugner Forest, and after some searching, spots an elderly Elvaan man by the Phanauet Channel. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it seems those loyal to the Knights Mistalle are still quite paranoid after all these years.

Rapifafa takes out the man’s pet Malboro, and she’s almost forced to draw her sword against the old man as well, if not for the timely arrival of a young gentleman.

Louverance holds himself with as much dignity as would be expected of an heir to a former noble house, and is all too willing to assist a lady. He tells Rapifafa that detailed information on his grandfather’s mission is likely kept under lock-and-key by the San d’Orian Cathedral, but the former Papasque Muchavatte had strong ties with one Count Caffaule. The Count has passed on, but his wife, Hinaree, lives alone in their manor. Rapifafa had been there before- it was the house that contained the many paintings by Mique she had visited during her Paladin training.

Rapifafa thanks Louverance and goes to meet the widow, and her face lights up at the mention of Louverance. She explains to Rapifafa that the Multinational Expedition had its start from a proposal by the Bastokans- they believed there was some kind of force hidden beneath the Northlands. At first the Papasque dismissed these claims, but during his conversations with the Count Caffaule, it was suggested that perhaps this force was the Gates of Paradise the San d’Orian church so sought.

Apparently Ulmia is familiar with Hinaree- 20 years ago, before disaster befell Tavnazia and Ulmia was still a little girl, she had traveled to San d’Oria with the Cardinal Mildaurion C Giloumet. Hinaree is relieved to see that the little singer she had met so long ago had survived the tragedy, and can’t help but inquire further.

Ulmia turns the subject back to the Gates of Paradise- the stories she hears in the streets of San d’Oria seem so different than the ones she was told.

Hinaree remembers that soon after this meeting, the Cardinal Mildaurion revoked her own nobility and disappeared from the kingdom. All these events occurred only a few days after the devastating attack on Tavnazia by the Orc Forces. Hinaree cannot say if this was simply coincidence or if these events actually had some kind of relation, but she does know that the cathedral has sent a knight to investigate Mildaurion’s whereabouts- Louverance.

Rapifafa figures Ulmia probably needed some time alone, and investigating into Francmage’s background seemed to only lead in circles, so she decides that it's time to move on. Rapifafa leaves San d’Oria and travels south- back to her home, Windurst. Unfortunately for her, she was not alone in this endeavor.

Rapifafa already knew Iru-Kuiru’s final fate in the Elshimo Islands, but she realizes she actually knows very little about what exactly Iru-Kuiru was researching in the Northlands. Rapifafa travels to the Rhinostery to see if she can meet with his former pupil, but Rukususu is away from the Rhinostery like she so often is. Still, the staff are quite helpful and give Rapifafa a number of leads to start her investigation. Leppe-Hoppe in particular tells Rapifafa of a visitor he had before Rapifafa arrived.

The visitor was a Mithran Tracker, or Sin Hunter- one of the same order from the Far Southern Mithran Empire which once sought to end Semih Lafihna’s life. Shikaree Y told Leppe-Hoppe she came from the Mithran homeland from the far south to find the protocrystals housing the Sleeping Gods of Vana’Diel- the same ones where Rapifafa had confronted the Avatars. For some reason, she wanted to shatter the protocrystals, and demanded that Leepe-Hoppe help her create a special tuning fork to do just that. Leepe-Hoppe insisted that such a thing was impossible due to the power of the Sleeping Gods, and the only conceivable way someone could shatter these crystals was by convincing the Gods which resided within the crystals to do so themselves.

Death by snu-snu.

Shikaree Y had little trouble "convincing" Leppe-Hoppe to create what she wanted, though secretly he hoped that the Sleeping Gods would be about as nice to her as she was to him. Leppe-Hoppe tells Rapifafa that since he gave that Mithran Tracker the Tuning Fork, he has not seen her. Though earlier he was angry at the Tracker for roughing him up, now he doesn’t really feel comfortable leaving a lady to such a cruel fate. He had sent one of the Rhinostery members to search for her, one who Rapifafa was actually quite familiar with- it just so happens he returned in the middle of Rapifafa and Leppe-Hoppe's conversation.

Ildy-Goldy tells them that he had come into information that a dark-helmeted Mithra was heading north towards Xarcabard. Leppe-Hoppe thinks it odd, since the Ice Protocrystal of Shiva was underneath Fei-Yin in the Beaucedine Glacier, so it didn’t make a lot of sense for her to be travelling past that.

Iru-Kuiru had spent the last years of his life in Kazham alongside the Mithra who lived there, so Ildy-Goldy believes that it may be best to ask them regarding this matter. Rapifafa opted to tag along, as she felt this may lead to information about Iru-Kuiru.

A few airship rides later, Rapifafa returned to Kazham, where the chieftainess Jakoh Wahcondalo gives rather disturbing information to Ildy-Goldy and Rapifafa.

Apparently, the Southern Continent wasn't standing idly by as the Emptiness appeared in their lands as well. Still, that was not relevant to what they were currently investigating. Ildy-Goldy turns the subject back to the Crystal of Darkness in Mithran Legend.

At first, Ildy-Goldy is a bit hesitant to look for Romaa Mihgo-the previous chieftainess of Kazham was not on good terms with Windurst after the tragedy that befell Yow Rabntah after the Multinational Expedition. Supposedly, Iru-Kuiru was who convinced her to join. Jakoh tells Ildy-Goldy that she wasn’t on particularly good terms with Romaa when she was made chieftainess either, so it could be concluded that Romaa wasn't really one to let her emotions get in the way of business.

With this in mind, Rapifafa and Ildy-Goldy pay a visit to the former Chieftainess. Ildy-Goldy makes the case that it took a long time to reestablish ties between Kazham and Windurst after the incident involving Yow Rabntah, so this Mithran Tracker dying due to the Rhinostery would most likely damage the mending relationship.

Ildy-Goldy had to undergo some kind of trial to satisfy Romaa Mihgo, and he asks that Rapifafa tag along to act as a witness. As Ildy-Goldy travels to the waterfall Romaa Mihgo pointed out, Rapifafa travels to a ledge above to observe.

Rapifafa could handle herself, so she takes care of the monsters for Ildy-Goldy, and together they return to Romaa Mihgo.

Always feels good to successfully complete an ancient rite based on a technicality.

Romaa Mihgo tells the two about the Mithran legend of the crystal of darkness. The Mithra believe that the Sleeping God within the crystal of darkness, unlike all the other Gods, actually did awake a long time ago, but was led back to its slumber via a strange shining box. It is also said that due to this, the Divinity of Darkness’s sleep is shallow, and he would answer questions of those who appear before him.

Romaa Mihgo does not know where the precise location of the Darkness Protocrystal, but she knows that stories of a strange box circulated Norg, so perhaps they could learn more by speaking with a man named Kamui there.

Rapifafa and Ildy-Goldy travel through the jungle to reach the pirate city of Norg, finding Kamui near Gilgamesh's quarters. He is apparently Tavnazian, so when he hears that Rapifafa is involved in the recent occurrences regarding the lost land, he is willing to give his cooperation.

Kamui tells what he knows of the story. During the rule of King Ranperre, forces from the Great Orcish Empire in the continent far north of Quon began a campaign southward. The Orc Forces attempted to make the Uleguerand Range north of Xarcabard into their staging point for the invasion, but the San d’Orian and Tavnazian forces joined together to repel the invasion. Amidst these battles, it was said a San d’Orian soldier once slipped a fell into a crevasse in the Uleguerand Range.

As he attempted to find an exit out of the winding tunnels, he heard a strange voice calling to him. The soldier followed the voice to a frozen lake beneath the Uleguerand Range, and it is said he spoke with a god at this frozen lake. The details of this event are unclear, but what is said is that the soldier returned from the frozen lake bearing a mysterious box, which would go on to become a holy relic in the Tavnazian Cathedral.

Kamui further notes that that thirty years ago, a Mithra joined the allied expedition because she wished to find the lake in this legend- Ildy-Goldy immediately recognizes this Mithra as Yow Rabntah. Yow Rabntah was unsuccessful at finding the lake, but her experiences in the evil northlands nevertheless twisted her soul. Rapifafa silently recalled that it was also during this trip when Yow Rabntah discovered a piece of magicite she would later use to fashion a certain bow. Kamui concludes his story by saying that after Yow Rabntah returned to Kazham, she somehow caused an intertribal conflict which led to the death of countless Mithran lives.

Ildy-Goldy believes that there is little choice now but to pursue the Mithran Tracker to the Uleguerand Range, but it would be best if they had more help. Ildy-Goldy asks Rapifafa to meet him at the gathering spot of the Rhinostery’s Northlands researchers in the Beaucedine Glacier.

Rapifafa returns to San d'Oria and makes her way to the Northlands. At Beaucedine, Ildy-Goldy attempts to convince the researchers to make the trip northwards, but they are hesitant to even travel to Xarcabard, let alone go past that into the Uleguerand Range.

Apparently, Shikaree Y was never able to meet the Divinity of Darkness- some strange force prevented her from reaching the frozen lake beneath the Uleguerand Range. Shikaree Y has instead spent her time finding out that Ildy-Goldy and Rapifafa have been on her trail, and she’s not particularly happy about it. She demands that the two spill any details they may have learned about Magicite during their investigation, but this only confuses Ildy-Goldy.

With this, the Mithran Tracker runs off. The search for the Mithran Tracker was over, and it was doubtful Rapifafa could get any information from her, so Rapifafa bids farewell to Ildy-Goldy. Rapifafa returned to Windurst to continue her investigation into Iru-Kuiru.

Some of the Rhinostery members had told Rapifafa before that she may learn more about Iru-Kuiru’s research by speaking to Professor Yoran-Oran. Rapifafa travels to the Professor’s manor in Windurst Walls, but before she can even get a word out, they're paid a visit by a group Rapifafa would place at the bottom of a list of people she wanted to see.

Yoran-Oran is confused, so the children explain (by explaining nothing).

Yoran-Oran admits he was in Tavnazia many years ago, but it was purely official business. Tavnazia was quite a gathering spot for pirates and thieves, so there were many treasures hidden in the Tavnazian Sacrarium. Of these treasures, Yoran-Oran was asked to help with identifying a strange statue.

Yoran-Oran wasn’t brought there to identify the statue itself. Given his expertise, he was instead asked to figure out where the statue had been excavated from by analyzing the traces of soil on the statue. Yoran-Oran soon concluded that the soil was not soil, but silt- silt from the bottom of the Sea of Shu’Meyo north of Jeuno.

Yoran-Oran believes that something called a Mimeo Mirror should be able to prove his innocence and clear his name, but he cannot remember who in Windurst might own one. He asks that Rapifafa come back to help him after he's had time to calm himself after all the commotion. Rapifafa decides to chase after the Chebukki siblings. Rapifafa loses sight of the children, but is later able to find someone at the restaurant who had seen them- a reporter, Kyume-Romeh.

Kyume-Romeh said that after they finished eating, the Chebukki siblings ran off in the direction of the southern Windurst Waters. Rapifafa figures that if the Chebukkis were looking for someone wealthy in Windurst, it was likely that would lead them to one man in particular.

Honoi-Gomoi admits that he had been to Tavnazia many times in the past, but it was only because he had close dealings with the band of thieves known as Atarefaunet’s Band.

With the children still insisting that he is their father, Honoi-Gomoi is clearly reaching the end of what little patience he has.

Rapifafa mentions Yoran-Oran’s suggestion of the Mimeo Mirror, which prompts Honoi-Gomoi digs through his belongings to find one of his own- unfortunately, it is cracked. Rapifafa takes it to Yoran-Oran to see if he could do anything with it.

As usual, no such luck. In order to fix the mirror, Yoran-Oran is going to need a Mimeo Feather from the top of the Parradamo Tor in the Attohwa Chasm.

By travelling underground through the Maze of Shakhrami, Rapifafa is able to reach the Attohwa Chasm.

Traveling to the eastern side of the chasm, Rapifafa sees the Parradamo Tor off in the distance- it doesn’t look like it will be an easy climb.

As Yoran-Oran instructed Rapifafa, she first looks near the base of the hill for a Mimeo Jewel.

As Rapifafa makes a grab for one of the jewels, she is ambushed by a monster beneath the ground.

The monster gives her quite a scare, but Rapifafa is able to take it out. With the Mimeo Jewel out of the earth, Rapifafa could feel its power already beginning to fade, so she was now on a time limit to climb to the top of Parradamo Tor.

The climb is a treacherous one. She could only find tiny paths on the side of the hill to slowly inch her way up. Occasionally she had to jump to a different path when strange miasmas blocked her path upward.

When Rapifafa reaches the top of the hill, the sun has already begun to rise.

After a short search, Rapifafa finds what she was told is known as the Cradle of Rebirth.

Rapifafa casts the Mimeo Jewel into the cradle, and with a flash, Mimeo feathers float up to Rapifafa.

With her task done, Rapifafa decides to take a short break before returning to Windurst, enjoying the scenery on the top of the Parradamo Tor.

Yoran-Oran is pleased at Rapifafa's return, and sets to work on fixing the Mimeo Mirror. He asks Rapifafa to find the troublesome Chebukkis in the meantime.

Rapifafa has a hard time finding the three, but she eventually comes across another reporter who tells Rapifafa that she had spotted the Chebukkis near the airship port earlier.

The reporter notes that they ran off towards Windurst Waters looking for a great wizard of some kind. Rapifafa could only think of one man there who fit this description. Sure enough, soon after Rapifafa arrives, the Chebukkis soon came bursting through the door.

Tosuka-Porika tells the children that he’s never even been to Tavnazia, but the children’s answer to that information probably shouldn’t have surprised Rapifafa.

He gives the children the devastating news that their "father" perished many years ago. As the children begin to sob, Tosuka-Porika promises to help them in any way he can, but the Chebukkis are doubtful that he was capable of helping anyone.

The only thing close to a fountain is that hat you’re wearing.

The Chebukkis knew they were wasting their (and Rapifafa’s) time, so they ask one last question before running off for Jeuno.

Rapifafa returns to Yoran-Oran with the news of the childrens’ departure, but since they’ve already spread the news of their father being Karaha-Baruha around the town, Yoran-Oran has little left to worry about.

Rapifafa finally has the chance to ask Yoran-Oran about the Multinational Expedition, but it seems he knows very little. He could only reiterate what Rapifafa already knew, that some terrible power resided in the northlands, but where or what it was still eluded the Windurstians. Even Rukususu, with all her field work in the Northlands, has only uncovered a few trivial elements.

With nothing to show for her search in Windurst, Rapifafa was left with only one last thread of pursuit for any useful information- Bastok.

Rapifafa organizes her things and bids goodbye to her homeland once again. A few airship trips later, Rapifafa found herself back in the industrial Republic of Bastok. With the date of the meeting with Muckvix’s group soon to come, Rapifafa placed her investigation of the Multinational Expedition on hold, and opted to spend some time looking into the silver-feathered chocobo Nevela wanted to know about.

In the Bastok Mines, one of the chocobo stable workers tells Rapifafa that the silver-feathered chocobo she is asking about was known as Silver Comet, formerly owned by a highly ranked general in the Bastokan navy. The general gave the chocobo to his son as a coming-of-age present, and the son took the opportunity to strike out on his own.

For a long time, no news of the general son came in, until many years later, Silver Comet returned to town- without his owner. The general’s son had lost his life somewhere in the wilds. In memory of his son, the general asked that the stables take good care of Silver Comet. Unfortunately, a thief stole Silver Comet not long after.

Wobke explains to Rapifafa that what she’s saying is impossible- the general spent many of his remaining days searching for Silver Comet, and eventually heard an adventurer say that he had seen the chocobo drown in the Pashhow Marshlands. That same adventurer was still working in the Pashhow Marshlands, so if Rapifafa wished to know more, she would probably have to ask him.

Rapifafa borrows one of the chocobos from the stables and travels to the Bastokan outpost in Pashhow Marshlands. There, she finds the adventurer that Wobke had described to her.

The adventurer, Ulzana, comes off as a rather shady character, and is only willing to give Rapifafa the time of day after she helps him collect some oils held by the local quadavs in their home base of Beadeaux.

Rapifafa has little trouble completing the simple, albeit tedious task. Returning with the oils, Ulzana parts with what knowledge he has of the silver chocobo.

With nothing else to divulge, Rapifafa returns to Bastok and takes this new information back to Wobke.

Rapifafa asks Wobke if she knows anything about the other chocobo that Ulzana mentioned, Shooting Star.

Rapifafa was going to have to wait until she was next in Jeuno before she could pursue this investigation any further. For now, it was time to meet with Muckvix in Movalpolos.

Muckvix prepares Rapifafa with the scent his group had prepared before moving to meet with the Moblins. They are at first suspicious of Rapifafa’s “disguise”, but the Goblins are eventually able to convince them, using a goblin scent they gave Rapifafa as evidence. One of the Goblins translates for Rapifafa, telling her that recently, a reincarnation of the Abhorrent God Promathia has appeared amongst the Moblins, and they were now being taken to meet him.

The Moblin takes Rapifafa’s group to the Moblin’s Mine Shaft #2716, where they meet this supposed reincarnation of the Dark God.

The new Promathia requests to speak with Rapifafa personally, but with no knowledge of the Moblin tongue, Rapifafa has some trouble responding to his questions.

Technically the plan still worked, the still think you're a Goblin.

With their so-called reincarnation of Promathia defeated, the Moblins quickly lose faith in this prophet, but their resolve to attack Bastok has not changed. The Goblins are eventually able to convince the Moblins that the Goblins have several “human agents” like Rapifafa, and it would be better to leave any attacks on the surface to be left to the Goblins.

As they prepare to leave, they are approached by one of the Moblins- he was the some one who took Rapifafa's Dawn Talisman away when she was last here investigating the Moblin's religion.

The group tells Jabbos’s friend that this was only a temporary solution, so if a lasting peace was desired, Jabbos and any who think like him must continue to work to change how the Moblins think.

Rapifafa thanks the Goblins for their help in this matter, and travels to Bastok to tell Ayame of the news of what occurred in Movalpolos.

Ayame is uncomfortable with leaving the Moblins alone, but that seems like it would be the best course of action at this time. For now, they would have to leave this situation to Jabbos.

On her way out, Rapifafa decides to pay a visit to Cid- it was likely he knew something of the Multinational expedition. Cid seems reluctant to speak of it, but seems to understand Rapifafa’s need for the information.

30 years ago, a strange stone was brought to the Bastokan Metalworks. Cid was amazed by what he saw and felt- he could feel power coming from the stone even just standing near it. When he was told that it was a fragment of a crystal in the Northlands, he knew he had to have more of it- with enough of it, he could bring new advancements to Bastok.

With this new lead, Rapifafa began making her way back to Jeuno, hoping that Prishe would not have departed on Aldo’s ship just yet.

Rapifafa opted to travel to Jeuno by chocobo this time. As Rapifafa neared Jeuno, she took a detour into the cemeteries of the Batallia Downs. After some searching, Rapifafa finds the resting place of the general’s son, with Silver Comet’s collar in place as Wobke had mentioned.

With the collar in hand, Rapifafa hiked the rest of her way to Upper Jeuno, where Nevela was waiting for her.

Brutus had hidden Shooting Star away in the Batallia Downs, but the man in pursuit of Shooting Star made further attempts by using Shooting Star’s mate, Silver Comet. Silver Comet was smart enough to be aware of what the man was trying to do, and dove into the swamps of the Pashhow Marshlands, her rider still on her back.

Rapifafa could feel there was something more to this story, but it doesn’t seem like she was going to get more out of Brutus for now. With that finished, Rapifafa began her search for Prishe.

Elsewhere, Nag’molada was finalizing plans of his own.

Rapifafa arrives at the Jeuno’s Tenshodo, only to find a familiar face in addition to Aldo’s.

Rapifafa immediately brings up the question Cid had asked her, but Ulmia can tell Rapifafa little about the Star of Tavnazia. She has heard many stories, but she has never actually seen it. Aldo, on the other hand, seems concerned with what the implications of Magicite being in the Northlands could be-the Orc, Quadav and Yagudo all built their cities around their respective Magicite, after all. Before they can get far into the conversation however, they are interrupted by urgent news.